Russell Williams

Russell Williams was a highly decorated military man in Canada with a highly problematic secret life. When he wasn’t serving his country, he was breaking into the homes of women and stealing their underwear and occasionally, he sexually assaulted women in their homes. Jessica Lloyd and Marie-France Comeau were the only 2 known women who didn’t survive his escalating fetishistic behaviors.

David Russell Williams

Russell Williams was born on March 7th, 1963 to David “Dave” Williams and Christine Williams in Bromsgrove, England. Dave Williams was a British metallurgist who was known for being “outgoing” and a “charmer.” Christine Williams was also British and was a tennis player. They had Russell and his brother Harvey, but no other children.

The family immigrated to Canada where they met another family and became best friends. The family consisted of Jerry Sovka, his wife Lynn and their kids who were about the same age as Russell and Harvey. Jerry and Lynn and Dave and Christine were active couples. Dave and Jerry raced dinghies; their dinghy was named “International 14.” Jerry Sovka had graduated from MIT (or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and he worked at Chalk River Labs with Dave Williams. Together the Williams and Sovka families (members of the Deep River Yacht and Tennis Club) attended dances. Apparently these dances got pretty racy. One source said that you could start the night dancing with your significant other and end the night dancing with multiple people in different relationships.

On October 31, 1969, when Russell was 7-years-old, Christine Williams filed for divorce and this was during a time when you had to name a reason for the dissolution of a marriage. There wasn’t a thing called “no fault” divorces yet. Court documents stated “adultery” on the part of Dave. Apparently he was sleeping with Lynn Sovka.

Christine took the boys and moved to Scarborough and then to Toronto. While the reason for the divorce had been cited as adultery on Dave’s part, it’s pretty obvious that Chritine wasn’t completely innocent. On June 2, 1970 (8 months after filing for divorce) she married Jerry Sovka. Lynn and Dave’s relationship was fleeting, but Christine and Jerry would stay together for the next 30 years. In less than a year, Russell’s parents had gotten divorced, he’d moved, and his mom had remarried. Then they all had their names changed. Christine became Nonie Sovka and Russell took the Sovka last name.

Unfortunately, things didn’t get better for Russell Williams/Stovka. He was a “band geek” in school and being an awesome trumpeter doesn’t make one super popular. But he apparently was very good because in his freshman year of high school, he was promoted to the senior band. Back in Canada, Williams was sent to a boarding school called Upper Canada College to finish out his high school education. According to sources, the school “appealed to his more serious sensibilities” and it was expensive with “high standards for enrollment.” However, the reigns were probably loosened a little by the position his step-father held as a well-respected scientist with an impressive background.

Still, Williams didn’t fare any better with his peers. His roommates recall that he didn’t participate in the typical merriment of college. Russell Williams studied, played trumpet, and perfectly and precisely folded his laundry while he listened to the same Diana Ross song on repeat. One roommate said that Williams lacked basic social skills making it very difficult to have a general conversation with him. The roommate also couldn’t remember Williams having anyone that he hung out with or spent any amount of time with. No one could. None of the people that have been interviewed about Russell Williams in college could think of a single person that he was friends with.

After high school, Williams attended University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus and was assigned to share a place with 5 other guys. Once again, Russell Williams started off on the wrong foot and his OCD tendencies and controlling behavior came out in full swing. While his roommates were basically unpacking, Williams had created a schedule for chores and announced that he would be buying meals that week. He told his roommates that they would be sharing the duties of cooking and they would rotate jobs. Williams was described as “orderly,” “focused,” and “authoritative.” He even got his roommates to wear slippers in the house. They called him names like Drill Sergeant, Sergeant Major, or Mother Goose.

And then in 1987, one day, for no reason in particular, he changed. All of a sudden he was fun. He played practical jokes and was sociable. This is when he went back to being Russell Williams. While he was a less high strung version of himself, he was still Russell Williams so he was still pretty high strung. He still didn’t party, and he still studied like a fiend and folded his laundry with military precision. The practical jokes and pranks showed his roommates the softer, sillier side of Williams. His former roommate, Jeff Farquhar recalled many of his pranks to a media outlet, but a few specific ones are kind of telling (knowing what we know)…

Farquhar remembered a time when one of their roommates kept coming home late so Williams took the locks off the front door and fiddled with the bolt and workings so that the front door would only unlock with the laundry room key. He didn’t switch the locks. He used the front door lock and rekeyed it basically. His roommates were a little shocked that he knew how to do this. Williams was also constantly hiding in his roommates’ closets and waiting there for hours before he would jump out and scare the bejesus out of them. This became such a frequent prank that the roommates developed a routine of having to say good night to each other so they knew where everyone was.

While he was starting to become known as this prankster, he was still very particular about his things and his money. According to an article, Williams would come back from a night out at a bar and bust out his clipboard and document the money he’d spent. He never bought more than 2 beers and would make note of the amount he spent on them and what other things he bought. Russell Williams graduated from University of Toronto with a degree in economics and politics in 1986. It was around this time that he met Mary Elizabeth Harriman. The two would later marry on June 1, 1991.

Russell Williams: Ideal Military Man

After graduation, Williams took a year to kind of gather his thoughts and figure out his next steps. During this year of working part-time at the university and part-time at Red Lobster, he watched Top Gun on repeat and eventually made the decision to join the armed forces in some capacity- ideally a pilot. He applied for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) as well as the Canadian Air Force. For RCMP, Williams’ background was thoroughly checked and cleared and he did interviews with them. However, this was more of a back up plan and when they offered him a job, he turned it down. He had been taking flying lessons, so he waited for the Air Force. By the end of 1987, Russell Williams was in basic training at CFB Chilliwack.

In 1990, Williams earned his wings and was sent to 3 Canada Forces Fighting Training in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba. This was just the beginning of his accelerated military career. In November of 1999, Williams was promoted to Major. From August 2003 to June 2004, Williams earned his masters of defense studies from Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario (after writing a 55-page thesis supporting preemptive war in Iraq) and upon completing this degree, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and assigned to be the commanding officer of 437 Transport Squadron in Trenton, Ontario.

For the next few years, he would move to different bases and was put in charge of a few big projects and training new pilots. In July of 2006, Russell Williams and his wife moved to Orleans which is a suburb of Ottawa while he was posted to the Directorate of Air Requirements and served at the Airlift Capability Projects Strategic and Tactical and Fixed-Wing Search and Rescue. In January of 2009, Russell Williams was promoted to Colonel and then in July he was made commanding officer of CFB Trenton. Among other things, CFB Trenton is also the location where the bodies of soldiers killed in Afghanistan would come back and would be the beginning of the funeral processions along the “Highway of Heroes.” This would be his final assignment and promotion.

In his 23-year military career, Williams would be considered the “model military man.” He had flown VIPs such as Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip as well as the governor general and prime minister of Canada. He was also there in December of 2009 to greet the Olympic torch when it came through. Williams was a Colonel, and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Harriman, was the senior executive at The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. They were living plush lives with their 2 homes, multiple cars, and generally comfortable lifestyles.

RUSSELL WILLIAMS: Murderer

While Williams was rising through the ranks of the Canadian Armed Forces, he was also leading a pretty terrifying double life. This was a man who had been trusted to protect and defend his country, but all the while, he’s a threat. There isn’t information on every one of his crimes, but what we do know is that Williams had been lurking in his neighbors’ houses when they weren’t there and he was doing this repeatedly. He would revisit the same houses 8 and 9 times. He used his lock picking skills to enter homes or he pushed screens out of their windows or if he found an unlocked window or door, he simply walked in.

His victims were carefully chosen. He got as much info about each victim as he could during his multiple break-ins to a house. Williams would take pictures of documents with information about the victims and pictures of the photos they had around the house of their family and friends. Williams’ first known break-in was in September of 2007. Williams had been friends with the family and was even known to go fishing with the dad and have dinner with them. And yet, he broke into their home 3 times. In his collection of trophies, Williams had pictures of him lying on their bed while wearing only a bra and a pair of red panties that belonged to their daughter.

This became his routine, and he broke into MANY homes spending HOURS inside taking photos. On January 1, 2008, Williams broke into the house of his neighbor in Ottawa. He knew that this family consisted of a teenage daughter. So, that New Year’s Day, Williams went into the 15-year-old girl’s room and “sprayed” semen on her dresser. He also took pictures of himself with this young girl’s make-up brush touching his penis. Forensics had been unable to obtain DNA from the semen. Williams was very fond of documenting his adventures and took thousands of pictures of himself in the panties and bras he found in the house.

In June of 2008, he broke into the home of a 24-year-old woman in Ottawa where he took a picture of his penis strapped to one of her sex toys which he would steal. In his break-in photoshoots, Williams had a pattern…

Picture of the bedroom
Picture of the underwear in the dresser
Arrange the underwear precisely on the bed or the floor and take pictures
Finally, pictures of himself modeling the underwear and masturbating

He took a lot of pictures of his penis pushing out of the ladies’ panties. In his 1st known break-in back in 2007, he took 14 photos solely of this. Williams’ stash of pictures and panties and sex toys that he stole was extensive and methodically catalouged. It got to a point that he had to burn some to make room for more. He also had them spread between his 2 homes. When he had to burn some of the items, he still had his treasure trove of pictures that he kept on hard drives in the ceiling above the basement in his home in Ottawa. He also stored them in a deep labyrinth within the files on those drives so that his wife couldn’t happen upon them.

On July 10, 2009, Williams broke into a neighbor’s home for the 6th of 9 times. On this occasion, Williams entered the house at 1:30 am and watched the young women get undressed and get in the shower. Once she was in the shower, Williams also got undressed and broke into her house. He crept into her bedroom and stole panties from her. Williams later said that he had wanted to do more and take more risks now and boy would he.

On one outing, Williams watched from outside the house as a teenage girl took off her clothes. Hiding in the bushes, Williams got undressed and masturbated. Yet another time, Williams left a note for the victim saying, “Go ahead and call the police. I want to show the judge your really big dildos.” On September 17th, 2009 Williams was escalating. He broke into the home of “Jane Doe.” Jane Doe was in her home sleeping with her newborn baby. Williams broke into the house and beat her up. He bound her and used a pillowcase to blindfold her.

Williams spent the next 2 hours groping her and taking pictures of her naked. And then, he just left. She would be the first woman that Russell Williams assaulted. 13 days later on September 30th, Williams broke into the home of another woman who lived 3 doors down from his own home in Tweed. She was also asleep when he broke in. He bound her, blindfolded her, and forced her to pose naked for his camera the same way he did Jane Doe.

Both women called the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and after this, the OPP revealed to the public that they had a predator. Constables canvassed door to door to see if anyone had information about the “Tweed Creeper.” Then on November 23rd 2009, Williams’s fetishes escalated further. This is when 37-year-old, Corporal Marie-Francen Comeau (a flight attendant for CFB Trenton – under his command – who had mentioned to Williams that she lived alone) was found dead in her home. Then on January 28th 2010, 27 year old Jessica Lloyd disappeared. This would be the case that brought Russell Williams down and finally revealed the monster he really was.

Jessica Lloyd was reported missing when she didn’t show up for work and she wasn’t home, but her car was there. Because of the series of break-ins and assaults in the area as well as Corporal Marie-France Comeau’s murder, the OPP weren’t wasting time. Police quickly decided that Jessica Lloyd’s disappearance was likely connected to the rest of these cases. They immediately started a full scale search for Jessica. In this search, they utilized their resources which included CFB Trenton’s search-and-rescue team that was authorized by…drumroll please…Colonel Russell Williams. A week after the search was initiated, Jessica was still missing. Reports were coming in about sightings of Jessica in New York and Pennsylvania, but obviously those weren’t real.

Then, the witness tip came in that would blow this case wide open for real. A witness reported that a silver SUV had been in the field near Jessica’s house the night she disappeared. Better still, there were tire tracks in the snow and they were distinctive. These tracks would turn out to be on very few cars. One type being – Nissan Pathfinders. So the police set up a checkpoint on Highway 37 under the guise of a drunk driving check. While they had a car stopped, they would ask them questions that gave them an idea of the driver or occupant’s whereabouts recently and they would check the car’s tires.

Russell Williams: Arrested

Driving through that checkpoint on February 4th was Colonel Williams in his silver Nissan Pathfinder. Williams told the officers at the checkpoint that he was kinda in a hurry because he had a sick kid at home. (Williams and Harriman never had kids.) Police noticed that his tires matched the ones in the snow near Jessica’s house. He was placed under surveillance, but when the police realized that Williams had lied about having a sick child or a child at all, they called him to come into the police station.

Around 3 pm on February 7th, 2010, Williams went, confidently and unconcerned. Sergeant Jim Smyth escorted Williams to an interrogation room. Williams was cool, calm, and collected at first, but this changed. At first, Williams denied knowing any of the women whose homes were broken into or Jessica Lloyd. He only admits to knowing and meeting Corporal Comeau, and then he said he only met her once when they flew together for work. Sergeant Smyth would occasionally step out to get an update from the officers that were currently at Williams’ house in Ottawa and his cottage in Tweed executing search warrants. Williams’ wife was at the home in Ottawa and she was shocked at this sudden intrusion. Smyth also noticed that Williams’ boots matched the footprints in the snow at Jessica’s house. He was wearing the same boots he’d worn that night at Jessica’s.

When Williams found out that the police were at his house and that his wife was there and upset, Williams gave up. By 7:45 pm, Williams was singing like a bird. He didn’t like that this was upsetting his wife and wanted to confess to make it easier on her.

Williams said:

“I’m struggling with how upset my wife is right now.”

“I’m concerned that they’re tearing apart my wife’s brand new house.”

“I want to, um, minimize the impact on my wife.”

“My interest is in making my wife’s life a little easier.”

For the next 10-ish hours, Williams detailed his crimes and the next morning, he told the officers the location where he had dumped Jessica Lloyd’s body. It was 13 minutes from his own cottage. The day before he attacked Jessica, she had been at her house alone. She was running on her treadmill, but she was also being watched. The voyeur noticed young Jessica through her window and the next day while Jessica was out, he broke into her house to do some recon. He had to make sure she lived alone. She did. So, he left and parked his car somewhere hidden and waited for her to come home.

When she got home, he let her do her nightly routine and once she was in bed and asleep, he broke in again. She woke up and he knocked her over the head. He quickly tied her up and then wrapped duct tape around her eyes as a blind-fold. Throughout the ordeal, he took pictures. He assaulted her sexually and then raped her. Not only did he take pictures, but he videotaped the rape. Jessica didn’t fight him or argue with anything he said thinking that this would save her. She tried to appease him and not do anything to make him hurt her more.

It was the early morning hours when Russell put her in his Pathfinder and drove her to a cottage (his cottage) in Tweed. Once there, he made her take a shower and let her lay down and sleep for a while, but she woke up and had a seizure (probably from the blow to her head). He woke her up after the seizure and she begged him to take her to a hospital. She even said to Russell, “If I die, will you make sure my mom knows that I love her?” For a total of 21 hours after she arrived at his cottage, Jessica was assaulted over and over again.

Then he gave her food and got her dressed. He removed the duct tape and lulled Jessica into thinking she was going to go home, but he had no intention of letting her go. He had no intention of letting her live. He bashed her over the head with a flashlight and then strangled her to death with a rope. Then he took more pictures of her before driving her to a secluded area and dumped her body on January 29th, 2010. He went to a car wash and vacuumed out his car and cleaned it.

After he raped and murdered Jessica Lloyd, Colonel David “Russell” Williams went back to work where he was the Commander of Candadian Forces Base – Trenton, just like he did after he murdered Marie-France Comeau. After confessing in full, Williams wrote a note to his wife that said, “I am so very sorry for having hurt you like this. I love you, Russ.” Until Williams confessed, the police only knew about 17 of the breaking and entering cases. Those were the only ones that were reported until Williams confessed to upwards of 60 break-ins.

In the search of their homes, police found: a camera, a duffel bag with a black skull cap inside, a manual for how to pick locks, plus bloxes and pillowcases stuffed to the rafters with underwear and lingerie. Not to mention the 2 computer hard drives Williams had hidden in the ceiling of the basement. These hard drives turned out to contain over 3,000 pictures and video clips; including ones of Jessica Lloyd and Marie-France Comeau. Williams had videotaped the beating and murder of both women.

Colonel Russell Williams was arrested on February 7, 2010 and the next day he was in court in Belleville where he was charged with 2 counts of 1st degree murder, 1 counts of sexual assault, and 2 counts of forcible confinement (he would later be charged with 82 counts of breaking and entering). 50-year-old Williams pleaded guilty and in a month would have his 51st birthday beyond bars. That same day, February 8th, Williams was stripped of his command of CFB Trenton due to criminal charges and Canadian police took another look at tons of their cold cases that involved young women and were in the areas where Williams had been stationed over the years. In 2006 alone there were 48 cases of panty theft that were looked into as possibly being linked to Williams.

In April of 2010, guards had to hurriedly enter Williams’ cell to save him. He had taken a cardboard toilet paper roll and shoved it down his own throat to attempt suicide. 6 weeks after he was arrested, Williams and his wife entered into a “domestic contract.” In this “contract,” Harriman paid him $62,000 CASH and assumed the remaining mortgage on the townhouse in Ottawa that they had just bought. Williams would take on the ownership of the cottage in Tweed they’d bought a few years before for $178,000. The couple claimed that this wasn’t in order to protect his assets, but was to set her up financially. Williams would later sell the cottage for $165,000 in order to create a trust where the money would stay until the outcomes of the lawsuits against him were settled. Harriman also filed for divorce during this time, but they are still married as far as we know.

On October 18th when he entered his actual, official guilty plea. It took the attorneys 36 minutes to read the charges and it was reported in one source that the reading of the facts of this case took so long that the 4 crown attorneys had to switch off reading because their voices would start to crack. On October 21, 2010, Williams was given a life sentence with the possibility of parole in 25 years (he’ll be in his 70s when he’s eligible to apply for parole and will not be eligible for early parole because of his multiple murder convictions).

Upon being sentenced, Williams got the opportunity to talk to the court. He had sat slumped over in his seat until this point when he stood to say:

“Your Honor, I stand before you indescribably ashamed. I know the crimes I have committed have traumatized people. The family and friends of Marie-France Comeau and Jessica Lloyd, in particular have suffered and continue to suffer profound, desperate pain and sorrow as a result of what I’ve done. My assaults have caused [my victims] to suffer terribly as well. Numerous victims of the break and enters I have committed have been very seriously distressed as a result of my having so invaded their most intimate privacy. My family, your honor, has been irreparably damaged. The understandable hatred that was expressed yesterday and that has been palpable throughout the week has me recognize that most will find it impossible to accept, but the fact is, I deeply regret what I have done and the harm I know I have caused to many. I committed despicable crimes, your honor, and in the process betrayed my family, my friends, and colleagues in the Canadian Forces.”

The judge noted that he believed the apology was sincere. The Crown Attorney said that he would not seek to have Williams declared a “dangerous offender.” He claimed his reasons for not pursuing this were that it would have “prolonged” the hearing. He called it “superfluous” since he believes Russell Williams will not be released on parole because the facts of the case will keep the parole board from granting it. He did call Williams “simply one of the worst offenders in Canadian History.”

Andy Lloyd, Jessica Lloyd’s brother told the media after Wiliams’ conviction that “As long as he dies in jail, I’m happy.” Jessica’s mom had sat in the front row for every court appearance and brought with her a framed picture of Jessica. Lloyd said that this was done to bring Jessica back into this case, because they didn’t want it to be all about Williams and what he’d done. They wanted it to be about Jessica and the other victims.

Colonel Russell Williams was no longer Colonel Russell Williams. He was stripped of his commission, ranks, awards, EVERYTHING by the Governor General of Canada on the recommendation of the Chief of the Defense Staff. His severance pay was discontinued, and the salary he received after his arrest was seized. Williams’ conviction also prompted the Air Force to incinerate his uniform and have his medals destroyed. Williams’ Pathfinder and all of his treasures were destroyed as well.

His sentence prevents him from ever owning a weapon and he has to register as a sex offender for life. Williams was also required to submit DNA samples to the police data bank and pay a $100 victim surcharge for each charge totaling $8,800. However, because Canada’s Pension Act in Section 30, Williams is still entitled to his pension. This act states that a person’s pension is protected from court-awarded damages. Meaning that Williams’ victims have no right to any of his $60,000 a year military pension. The Canadian Forces Superannuation Act very specifically states that pensions are “exempt from attachment, seizure and execution” and cannot be taken by the government or awarded to plaintiffs in a lawsuit.

Russell Williams: Updates

Russell Williams is currently and for the foreseeable future spending his days at Port-Cartier in Quebec, a max-security prison. The Netflix series The Fall is reportedly based on the case of Dennis Rader, but they also took some notes from the Russell Williams case. The writer of the show, Allan Cubitt said: “Williams was unusual in that he was a decorated pilot in the Canadian military. Until his arrest, he had no previous convictions, but in fact he had a long career of breaking and entering and stealing underwear. Somehow that escalated to killing and he was ultimately convicted of 1st degree murder, sexual assault and forcible confinement. His method was very close to that of “Spector”. I took it as an indication I was getting it right in some way.”

There is currently no other up-to-date information on Russell Williams or his wife, but he’s not eligible for parole until 2035 so it’s safe to assume he’s still in prison with Paul Bernardo.